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July 18, 2008

Matson Goes Bananas

spacechamptps.jpg
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Posted by dpoland at July 18, 2008 09:18 AM

Comments

Haha this is cute. On "Space Chimps," despite the fact you obviously read the article dealing with Fox's 16 consecutive sub 50% movies (aside from Horton), and pointed out that other than Meet Dave theyve come ahead marketing wise...as Karl Rove said when he resigned..You can only peddle shit for so long to th American people before you run out of ideas.

Fox is looking at its 2nd bomb is as many weeks at the BO (despite the fact Vanguard produced "Chimps") and might be staring at a 3rd next week given the lack of buzz.

Anyone going to see "20th Century Fox: I Want to Believe" next week?

Posted by: EthanG [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 18, 2008 12:09 PM

It should be noted above that for those that don't know of the amazing 20th Century Fox streak, 16 of their last 17 movies released are at under 50% on rottentomatoes (16 straight live-action movies dating back to Live Free or Die Hard).

Even more stunning is the depth and breadth of Fox's crapiness in movie releasing. 12 of those 16 movies are at UNDER 25%(!), an unimaginable run, even for a major studio. Even better, they range in every genre imaginable from thriller (Death Sentence-17%, Deception-11%) and fantasy (Seeker:the Dark is Rising-13%), to sports comedy (The Comebacks-10%) sci-fi (Meet Dave-20%, AVP2-14%, The happening-19%) horror (Shitter...err Shutter-8%) spoof comedy (Meet the Spartans-3%) action (Hitman-14%, Jumper-16%) and rom-com (27 Dresses-40%, What Happens in Vegas-27%).

The most amazing this is, yes, many of these movies were financially successful, but Fox's summer has been rough so farm (What Happens in Vegas was a hit but The Happening and Meet Dave..not so much) but that streak looks dead. Not only does the streak look a likely bet to continue, with most of their upcoming movies having zero buzz....but they looks like box office disasters. We've got:

Space Chimps
X Files 2

The Rocker--Fox pushed this one back from a primo late July release to late August after moviegoes ran screaming for the exits at screenings. Poor Rainn Wilson deserves better.

Mirrors-From Aja...trailer just looks terrible. How many Ring knock-offs can the public lap up in one year? Cell phones, cameras, now mirrors?

Babylon A.D.-Sci fi Vin Diesal actioner coming out in a month. Has anyone even heard of this? Is is 2002?

Taken-Formulaic human traffiking thriller with Liam Neeson and Famke Janssen released 5 months ago in Europe. Also stars The Hot Blonde Chick from Lost. Yikes.

Fox is screwed. At least they passed on "Disaster Movie."

Posted by: EthanG [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 18, 2008 12:46 PM

Thank you, Goldstein Jr.

But as I pointed out - and the cartoon isn't about Fox even though Chernin appears - no one gets paid based on Rotten Tomatoes scores. There is not a studio in town that wouldn't be happy to release a shitty movie that makes a lot of money.

You are looking too short-sightedly at the Fox schedule. Most people would be pretty happy with their slate next year:
Australia - 11/14/08
The Day the Earth Stood Still - 12/12/08
Dragonball - 4/10/09
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - 5/1/09
Night at the Museum II - 5/22/09
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - 7/1/09
Avatar - 12/18/09

Posted by: David Poland [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 18, 2008 03:27 PM

I agree things look better down the road...financially at least, though I'm skeptical about the potential for Dragonball. Still, Fox might go from March until December or longer (if "Earth Stood Still" plays as a WOTW retread) with one film that really made any money (What Happens in Vegas).

And some of these films could be disastrous...Meet Dave, Babylon AD, City of Ember and Australia all have very large budgets and it's early to speculate but all of them have a good chance of tanking. Not to mention they're following up "Earth Stood Still" with an expensive Owen Wilson-Jennifer Aniston comedy vehicle. Good luck with that....

I guess we'll see.

Posted by: EthanG [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 18, 2008 04:45 PM

The Happening's going to be in the black, right? Worldwide it's grossed $140mil and it's budget was $60mil.

Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0 [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 19, 2008 01:15 AM

Factoring in the P&A budget...barely. Maybe.

Posted by: EthanG [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 19, 2008 09:05 AM

I want somebody hauled to the fucking Hague for The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Posted by: Bob Violence [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 20, 2008 02:31 AM

Why, Bob? That shit looks awesome.

Posted by: LexG [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 20, 2008 02:35 AM

oh lex you so WACKY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Bob Violence [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 20, 2008 04:43 AM

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